BRITISH businesses are starving their fleet departments of vital resources and treating them like a 'poor relation', a leading fleet figure claims. Fleet departments are left struggling with outdated equipment, while other divisions have money and resources immediately to hand.

Ashley Sowerby, managing director of Chevin Computer Systems, claims he has seen at first hand how many transport departments have to cope with 'second best'. He said: 'It never ceases to amaze me that something as important as the fleet department, responsible for controlling what is often the second biggest cost on any organisation's balance sheet, all too often ends up being treated as a poor relation.

'You will often find they are relegated to a portable cabin in an office in the car park and are given the oldest PCs on which to work, while more favoured departments get whatever they ask for in terms of new equipment. Apart from feeling sympathetic, we find all this extremely frustrating. Here we are striving to make our UK fleet operation more efficient, and we keep finding existing or potential customers struggling to use equipment which should have gone out with the Ark.'

Sowerby added: 'Companies expect more control and instant reporting from their fleet departments, such as safety and analysis of accident records. It really is time Britain's boards of directors gave their fleet departments more status and the tools with which to do the job.'